An ARP Odyssey MKI realized in
bare
metal, this ARP was fully restored and modified by Kevin "Synthfool"
Lightner.
It is extremely stable, reliable, sounds great and feels
wonderful.
It can make many sounds that no stock Ody can touch. Accurate and
reliable, but made for the adventurous synthesist. There are NO
panel
markings whatsoever. The case of this Ody was a whiteface.
However, some of the insides and keyboard are from a later unit.

Here's a list of what was done:

All jacks and hardware are new
Switchcraft.
All of the later model CV, Gate and Trig jacks were added, so using a
MIDI
to CV converter is possible. Keyboard was completely
restored.
New bushings, hand polished buss bars, later 2 buss style using J
wires.
Fully adjusted keys and lubed action. As good as they get.
More reliable than stock white Ody 3 buss models too.

It has a 4 Mode CEM3320 Voltage
controlled
filter. This is the same chip used in the Elka Synthex, PPG Wave
2.0, Rev 3 Prophet 5, Pro-One and the Oberheim OBXa & OB8.
It's
a -24dB/oct (4 pole) with switchable Low pass (LP), Band pass (BP),
High
pass (HP) and All pass (Phase shifter) outputs. A small added
rotary
switch near the filter chooses which response. Can sound a lot
like
an Oberheim SEM in many ways. Lots of sizzle! Filter will
self-resonate,
no problem. External audio in works great. The HP slider
has
been changed to mix in the pre-filter, dry signal. This allows
cancellations
with the VCF not possible on many synths and is certainly much better
than
that dumb stock Ody HP filter that few people use anyways. This
is
especially interesting when used with the phase shifter or high pass
filter
settings.

LFO speeds were expanded.
Can
now go slower and faster than any stock Ody. An added white LED
above
the slider indicates the rate. Since we have not disabled the
keyboard
retriggering of the LFO, the LED flashes much more brightly upon
key presses. Sort of a dual function LED. The lag time for
the sample and hold has been increased. This allows for slower
changing
random values. Perfect for trance music as the LFO can clock much
slower too.

All new exact replacement CTS
adjustment
trimmers. Most Odyssey's have 25+ year old calibration trimmers,
so it's no wonder that many can't stay in tune or develop VCA popping
and
other problems. These new trimmers are much more stable and they
stay put.

Power supply was
overhauled.
New capacitors, new trimmers, new fuse and new power cord.
Currently
the unit is set for 120 VAC.

Case has been stripped of paint,
resurfaced and polished. Has some blemishes and grain here and
there,
but this adds to its raw appeal.
We could have polished it even more
and mirror surfaced it, but it'd end up blinding you under bright
lights.

The VCO and keyboard interface
boards
are of a later Black and Gold Ody and more stable than white models
from
various design improvments. For example, Black Odys have less
internal
adjustments for tuning and so they keep their tuning more stable,
especially
over time.

The filter board (with envs and
vca)
is from a white model. White Odys (at least stock ones) do *not*
have Moog filters, as rumours persist. This filter is a 4 pole,
multimode
type and will run circles around a stock white Ody filter in terms of
low
end and versatility.
It has three additional filter
responses
and offers many more variances by mixing in the raw, dry signal.
Every slider was disassembled, specially cleaned, inspected, adjusted,
polished, lubed and reassembled. That's 238 separate parts
involved
in about 20 different processes. All sliders feel verrry
smooooth.
The power switch is much more reliable than the stock one and has
double
gold contacts.
The "low" audio out has been
converted
to high level. It has new rubber feet. Almost all screws
used
are stainless steel, inside and out!
(even the lock washers for the jacks
are stainless!)

The history of this "M-Ody", as it has been dubbed, is as follows: I
purchased it via E-bay from a guy in Brighton who was selling it to
help
finance buying a 2600. He had purchased it from renowned author/
musician Gordon Reid (www.gordonreid.co.uk) as a source of
spares.
The panel had already been separated from the case and keyboard
assembly
and arrived in "original", i.e., complete but scruffy, condition.
Like so many of us I have a long standing obsession with analogue
synths
dating back 30 years or more and despite owning lots of classics
(Minimoog,
Prophet 5, Polymoog, Pro-Soloist, etc.) I had never had an Ody. I
started to refurbish this one, which dates from 1979 I think, with
modern
Op-amps, multi-turn pots for the V/Oct trimmers and as much pot
cleaning
fluid as I could find! Whilst doing this I had a visit from a
mate
who drooled over the idea of having the Ody as a MIDI expander and so I
built the machine to his spec as you see it. One curious aspect
of
the MIDI implementation is that he didn't want to use the velocity CV
to
control anything - crazy I think, but it's available in there for
anyone
who wants to do stuff with it. Sod's Law meant that within a
couple
of months my mate went on to find a 2600 for a bargain price, which I
have
subsequently refurbished for him, and decided that the Ody wasn't
needed!!
He and I are sharing proceeds from the sale in some convoluted and
inextricable
deal. I did think about having the Ody back for myself but we
decided
to e-bay it. We've both had some fun with it as a project and
hopefully
someone will love it in the future.

(Webmaster's note: It is unknown who finally bought this
machine.
If you know, email me!)

I added an extra LFO, lagtime, a little signal/control mixer, 2
inv.
The usual filter upgrade plus a 12/24 db switch, extra waves for osc 1
tri and sin. Made the attack faster. Gave the original LFO
a double speed switch. And the mixer has 6 inputs, so I can use 6
waves at the same time, the same for the filter modulation section, 6
inputs...

When I finally have some time left I'll do the other 2 Avatars, the
2 Axxes and the Odyssey. The Odyssey has some old mods that I did
15 years ago.

Rob
Currier's Red Odyssey

Rob's narration:.Here's a photo of my newly modified and refurbished red
Odyssey. I
desoldered all of the sliders and cleaned them all. I then
reassembled
and relubricated them. I have also attached switching jacks to
all of
the patch points in the synth. When an 1/8th inch jack is plugged
in
to one of the points, the signal chain is broken at that point.
For
the frequency control on the VCOs and VCF, the switching jacks run
directly into the slider above them, allowing for attenuation of any
signal. 4 knobs were added below the vcf mixer, allowing for
control
of up to 4 additional audio input signals. I also added a blue
LED to
monitor the lfo rate and it is attached to the square wave
output. On
the rear of the synth are jacks for CV in and out, Gate in and out and
Trig in and out, allowing for midi control. There is a switching
jack
on VCO 2 allowing for individial 1v/oct CV to separately control that
oscillator. The synth was completely removed from it's case and the
finish was stripped and sanded until it was bare metal. I applied
a
coat of primer, taped up the parts that I wanted black and applied a
few coats of high gloss red spraypaint. Once dried, I applied
black
textured spray paint to the appropriate sections. Once
reassembled, I
was delighted to find that the sliders moved smoothly and there were no
more scratchy/intermittent pots on the unit. Now I can interface
the
ARP with my modular and make complex sounds with my odyssey that I
never thought that it would be capable of.

Heath's Odyssey
Mod in Japan.

These
photographs are of a keyboardless ARP Odyssey called B2K that I
remodeled. It is owned by Sam
Lee Uff. He is a very famous musician in Japan. The name B2K
originates because it looks like BATMANs